DHS Strips Arizona Sheriff of Authority to Patrol for Illegal Immigrants
from USA Today
Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he will continue his controversial "crime suppression operations" despite a Department of Homeland Security decision to strip him of authority to arrest suspected illegal immigrants based solely on their immigration status, the East Valley Tribune reports. “It’s all politics,” says Arpaio, sheriff of Maricopa County. Arpaio will still have the power to check the immigration status of people booked by his officers, but not the authority to conduct street patrols looking for illegal immigrants. More

Dogs Sniff Out Wrong Suspect; Scent Lineups Questioned
from CNN
The story of how a veteran law enforcement officer became a murder suspect in Texas is at the heart of a controversy over an investigative forensic tool called dog-scent lineups. Supporters say dog-scent lineups are a powerful crime-fighting tool helping investigators crack cases across the country. Former Victoria County Sheriff’s office commander of operations Michael Buchanek was identified as a murder suspect, not because of crime-scene evidence but because of two bloodhounds which have worked on hundreds of cases across the state. The dogs matched a scent from the crime to Buchanek. Despite repeated denials, Buchanek lived under a cloud of suspicion for five months. His former Sheriff's Office colleagues believed the dogs over him and his pleas of innocence. But the dogs were wrong. More

Chevrolet Introduces New Police Cruiser Model
from Fox News
At the International Association of Chiefs of Police convention in Denver on Oct. 5, Chevrolet introduced the Caprice Police Patrol Vehicle, which it hopes to begin delivering to law enforcement agencies in 2011, and spoke about delivery. More

Fake DEA Agents Arrested in California Marijuana Theft
from the San Francisco Chronicle
Sonoma County sheriff's deputies have arrested three men on suspicion of impersonating federal drug agents to steal marijuana. Deputies say one man wore a Drug Enforcement Administration cap and another had a police badge when they broke into the home west of Healdsburg. They tied up the victim and threatened to shoot him before taking his wallet and several marijuana plants and guns, investigators say. More

Police Use Acoustic Warfare to Disperse Crowds
from The Associated Press
Police ordered protesters to disperse at the Group of 20 summit with a device that can beam earsplitting alarm tones and verbal instructions that the manufacturer likens to a "spotlight of sound," but that legal groups called potentially dangerous. The device, called a Long Range Acoustic Device, concentrates voice commands and a car alarm-like sound in a 30- or 60-degree cone that can be heard nearly two miles away. It is about two feet square and mounted on a swivel such that one person can point it where it's needed. More

"Cops" TV Crew Injured in Police Car Crash
from KPTV
A Portland, Ore. police patrol car carrying two crew members from the television show "Cops" collided with another car recently, police said. A Subaru Outback traveling in the opposite direction drifted into the lane of the patrol car and hit the officer's car head-on, said Detective Mary Wheat of the Portland Police Bureau. The police officer and two crew members from the TV show were injured and taken to local hospitals. They are all expected to survive. More

Senate Passes Bill to Prevent Inmates from Using Smuggled Cell Phones
from Media Newswire
Legislation allowing prisons to block calls from contraband cellular phones has unanimously passed the Senate. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, introduced the legislation to prevent prison inmates from using smuggled cellular phones by allowing states to petition to operate wireless jamming devices in particular correctional facilities. The bill will now move to the House of Representatives for consideration. “This legislation will disconnect the communications networks that prisoners and criminal enterprises have patched together using smuggled cell phones,” said Senator Hutchison. More

Jail Selling Advertising Space on Video Visitation Monitors
from NBC2
The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office Corrections Division has started showing advertisements on their video visitation screens. Officials with the jail say they may be the first in the country to implement the idea. The new advertisement program offers great potential for attorneys and other services of interest for inmates and visitors. Funds collected from this ad program are returned to the Inmate Welfare Fund. More

Three Jail Officers Hurt in Indiana Jail Uprising
from WRTV
Three jail officers were injured, one of them seriously, in an uprising that involved three teen prisoners at the Jennings County Jail. The teens were initially able to take one jail officer hostage, stabbing him four times and placing him in handcuffs. Police said the inmates took the officers hostage before they were confronted by Indiana State Police and officers from the sheriff's department and North Vernon Police Department. Police fired stun guns, forcing the inmates to release the hostages. The inmates were then taken into custody. More

San Mateo County Settles Suit on Damage to Sewers from Jail Flushes
from the San Jose Mercury News
San Mateo County supervisors have tentatively agreed to pay $2.3 million to settle a lawsuit that claims inmates at the county jail are damaging the sewer system by putting gobs of jail junk into the commode. Since at least 2005, inmates have flushed jump suits, boxer shorts, hair gel containers, pomade, cups, granola bar wrappers and other items that aren't supposed to go in the toilet, according to the South Bayside System Authority, which sued the county in January 2008. The $2.3 million settlement takes into account $1.2 million in extra maintenance costs that the authority says it has incurred as a result of the solid matter coming from the Maguire Correctional Center in Redwood City, Schricker said. More